I witnessed the fear of HIV 30 years ago. Here’s how to overcome a pandemic: Cleve Jones | World News

As the coronavirus is rampant across the United States, it’s worth remembering the lessons and victories of fighting HIV/AIDS.

Thirty years ago, this summer, we had a decade with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and over 100,000 Americans had already died. The country was politically and socially divided as the virus destroyed homosexuals and people of color. Our country has blamed and abused the most afflicted individuals, families and communities.

Many thought early on that HIV afflicted gay men only. Later, it turned out that African Americans were also severely affected. Neither community could easily trust governments it could not protect in the past, nor did they have the resources to tackle HIV issues themselves. The disease has also spread rapidly among indigenous peoples and other colored communities.

Sadly, I felt that too many people were not immediately affected by this illness, and that there is no stake in the fight against it. They believed it only happened to others.

In the United States, we were largely unable to act with the speed and urgency we needed because we recognized HIV primarily as a gay illness. This homophobia-led indifference, with added racism, has contributed to the death of tens of millions of heterosexual men, women and children worldwide.

Then, on August 19, 1990, after years of intense advocacy, George HW Bush signed the Ryan Whitecare Act. Senate Ted Kennedy, a Liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, and Senator Olin Hatch, Utah, were equally well-known for his conservative Republican orthodox and sponsored legislation. Named after the brave Indiana boy who was infected with HIV from the treatment of hemophilia, it became a strong public face of those who suffered from this disease. The legislation has passed both the House and the Senate by the overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats.

The rival rivalry represents the opposite ideology, cooperating across the aisles and developing the legislation necessary to effectively fight the pandemics.

Today, the Ryan Whitecare Act represents a national framework for responding to viral pandemics. This ensures access to food, shelter, dentistry and mental health services, as well as access to healthcare and medicines for HIV-infected individuals, addressing as many barriers to health as possible. This is undoubtedly a success and demonstrates the strength of federal leadership in addressing public health challenges. While our country’s response to HIV still leaves much work to be done, programs and clinics funded by the Ryan White program save lives that would otherwise be lost.

Of course, there are differences between HIV and coronavirus. But it’s worth noting how many similarities exist. HIV and coronavirus were first identified in a coastal metropolis where thousands of people died rapidly in the United States. Both diseases have spread to marginalized communities, especially colored communities, whose effects are disproportionate and deadly. Once again, when a hospital desperately fills with dying patients, state and local governments are overwhelmed.

Thirty years ago, gay people were blamed for a pandemic. Today, Trump is blaming the Chinese. The concept of the “gay virus” was less meaningful than the concept of the “Chinese virus” today. And both beliefs betray deep ignorance and prejudice that have fatal consequences.

Traditional social media lives with awkward chatter from all sides of the debate about masks and economic resumption. It’s easy to mock those we oppose, but despicable memes and tweets don’t move us forward. Our conversation needs to focus on who dies, why they die, and how they can be saved when seeking effective treatments and vaccines.

Service industry workers, first responders, teachers, food supply chain and processing workers, the elderly and immigrants die because society believes they are disposable. Our rush to economic recovery, too many workers-afraid to lose both their income and health insurance-are being forced to return to unsafe workplaces. These are people who cannot work from home but provide essential services to those who can.

Compassion and impartiality must replace anger and politically-led divisions. Access to tests, treatments and health care should not be determined by income, skin color, language, gender, sexual orientation or geography. True financial support for distressed families, businesses, and local governments cannot be delayed.

You also need to be educated and trust public health personnel. When political and opinion leaders mock scientists and question their unfounded recommendations, their best efforts to slow the spread of the virus are undermined.

Healthy, if not hourly, daily sensational news should be replaced by calm, scientific information and guidance on coronaviruses. Politics needs to focus on public health. We need to depoliticize our masks and oblige us to do what we used to do with condom distribution and needle replacement. In American society, we value individual rights and freedoms. However, focusing on individualism can lead to mass disasters.

Some of us are old enough to remember another ugly national debate about the use of fabrics to save lives, while automobile seat belts are too uncomfortable to wear. The other pointed out research and research to show the effectiveness of saving lives. Many Americans opposed the government’s demands to use seat belts, imagining them as obstacles to personal freedom, and cited suspicious science in every way. The debate was striking, but today few people question the simple fact that seat belts save lives.

Just like 30 years ago, we need a tireless supporter. In the early days of the HIV pandemic, we screamed, “silence = death,” expanding the research building and hijacking the meeting to get the point. Inaction and political attitude were unacceptable. We marched through the streets and through the corridors of the parliament to finance, research, and support.

The current political bottlenecks that hinder actions to save lives must be resolved. All of us are responsible for telling elected officials (Democrats and Republicans) what they need to do better.

For us at the forefront of the fight against HIV in the 1980s and 1990s, it was like a war. Today we have a wartime self-proclaimed president, but he is leaving all states and fighting for himself without a coordinated national strategy. It is a disaster recipe. Defenders of HIV understood the need for accurate, timely and regulated testing. Without this, there was no data or maps to show resources or where to allocate resources, and there was only a limited idea of ​​what preventive strategies worked and how the virus worked. Today, without better testing, it is certain that our understanding of whether coronavirus antibodies immunize, and if so for how, and how the virus mutates, is hindered. I can’t know.

While professional athletes and career politicians have immediate access to accurate and quick tests, most of the rest provide inaccurate readings or results after a few days or weeks. To disable the test. Public health information is just as important as military information. President Trump may choose to ignore both, but we cannot. Because of this crisis and the next, it’s time to fund public health accordingly.

Worldwide, 35 million people die from HIV and the pandemic is not over. There is no cure or vaccine. But removing the differences, we have learned that we can save lives when communities work together and the federal government is driven by science, compassion, and common-sense decisions.

In the absence of HIV cures and vaccines, life-saving medications that prevent transmission have helped to lower the rate of infections and deaths like never before. This is because we have requested and supported the creation of a continuous, long-term, science-based approach to combating HIV. The Ryan White Care Act was an important element of our response at the time and is still saving lives.

The thoughtful, long-term approach to combating HIV, represented by the Ryan White Program, needs to be replicated to address today’s coronavirus pandemics and future unavoidable health challenges. Our lives and the lives of our family, friends and neighbors depend on them.

The President guarantees us that the coronavirus vaccine will be coming soon, perhaps by Election Day, but in 1984, former US Secretary of Health Margaret Heckler told us that a vaccine against HIV would be ready within two years. I remember telling him. 36 years later, we are still waiting for it. Empty promises do not protect us from the coronavirus threat, but they can do deliberate action.

I was there 30 years ago and experienced the horror of HIV. After all, we also saw when the power of bipartisan leadership was finally exercised against HIV. That’s what we need today from the President, Congress, and the people of the United States. The Ryan White Care Act offers us a proven way forward. We need governments and communities to reassemble and do the right thing to save lives.

This is arguably a long term challenge and we need a lasting solution, but we have shown that we can do it. There are ways to move forward.

Cleve Jones is a longtime laborer, LGBT organizer and founder of A.ids memory alkyl and author When we stand up: my life in exercise